Cheadle reports from Sudan for ‘Nightline’

NEW YORK, Feb 08, 2005 (UPI) — Don Cheadle, the Oscar-nominated star of “Hotel Rwanda,” has traveled to Africa to report a “Nightline” segment on the ethnic conflict in Sudan.

ABC says Cheadle appears in the late-night news program Wednesday as a special correspondent to chronicle a fact-finding trip by several members of Congress to examine what many call genocide in the country’s Darfur region, Zap2it.com reports.

Rebels in the region accuse the Sudanese government of bankrolling Arab militias, the Janjaweed, to wipe out non-Arab enclaves. In two years of fighting thousands have died and nearly 2 million have fled their homes for refugee camps. The government denies involvement.

In “Hotel Rwanda,” Cheadle plays a hotel manager who took in more than 1,000 people seeking safety from the Rwandan genocide in 1994. He says not becoming involved in the Sudan crisis would be “disingenuous” of him.

“We are in a time where we are seeing these sorts of micro genocides just multiplying and the displacement of humans at such an extreme number with no end in sight,” Cheadle says in a statement.